Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Leaders from right and left work toward same legislative goals

Without question, pending probation and parole reform legislation would ever have gotten as far as it has in the 80th Texas Legislature if not for hard work bytwo key, young leaders from opposite ends of the political spectrum: Marc Levin from the ideologically conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation and Ana Yañez Correa of the moderate-left Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, both of whom will be honored this afternoon with a resolution by the Texas House for outstanding contributions to Texas criminal justice policy.

Congrats to you both, mi amigos, the honor is well deserved!

I just received legislative updates from both Marc and Ana, so I thought I'd let them bring you up to speed this morning on the status of criminal justice bills. First, Levin sent out an email update over the weekend providing links to materials distributed at a TPPF capitol briefing last week. Said Marc:

At a Capitol briefing last week, we utilized a model of the criminal justice system we've created as well as projections by the Legislative Budget Board to demonstrate that pending legislation and budget provisions would divert sufficient numbers of offenders to eliminate any need for new prison construction. The budget conference committee is currently determining whether new prisons will be funded.

Many of you have expressed interest in seeing what we presented at this briefing. A four-page handout summarizing our findings is now online here.

This handout highlights the efficacy of alternatives to incarceration for low-risk, nonviolent offenders in reducing recidivism, in addition to the effect on prison capacity.

Also, the Powerpoint we presented entitled "Charting a New Path for Texas Corrections: Modeling the Effect of Alternatives to Incarceration" is available in PDF format here.

This presentation shows the plumbing of the model we created, providing a graphical depiction of how the current criminal justice system works, how some processes would operate differently under pending legislation, and the resulting impact on prison capacity needs.

These documents and the briefing focus in particular on the diversions from prison that would result from Senate Bills 1909 and 838, which relate to drug treatment and parole intermediate sanctions respectively, in conjunction with the proposed budget strategies to expand diversion capacity. These bills have passed the Senate and are pending in the House.

We are privileged that House Corrections Chairman Jerry Madden, the House sponsor of these two bills as well as significant other criminal justice reform legislation, and Senator Rodney Ellis, the lead sponsor of SB1909, attended the briefing along with legislative staff and other stakeholders.

Austin American-Statesman reporter Mike Ward, who has published numerous informative stories on adult and juvenile criminal justice issues, also covered the briefing here.

There is a historical shift from "tough on crime" to "smart on crime" policies going on at our Legislature. The question is, should we build new prisons, or should we address Texas' urgent matters right now?

Listen to Speaker Pro-temp Sylvester Turner's compelling argument on why the State doesn't need to construct new prisons to address its criminal justice needs.

Listen to the Appropriations Conference Committee hearing here , which took place May 11, 2007, at 10:00 am.This is an important issue that impacts all Texans in ways they may not realize.

BecausetheHouse and Senate versions of the biennial budget differ, a conference committee has been formed to develop an agreement on the final state budget.Within the next two weeks the Appropriations Conference Committee will be deciding which road Texas will take: the road that will save the State millions of dollars, strengthen families, and increase public safety, or the road that will waste funding we can use for healthcare, education, and utilities for those in need.

The House budget includes NO funding for new prisons and instead allocates funds for treatment.The Senate budget funds both treatment AND the construction of three prisons. These prisons would have a General Obligation bond cost of $233.4 million and a bond debt service General Revenue cost for the biennium of $34.5 million. According to the Sunset Advisory Commission, these three new prisons will cost $34.5 million per year in debt service and another $72 million per year in staffing and operations costs.

Call the members of the Conference Committee and tell them to say, "NO to new prisons!" and "YES to Responsible Funding for Treatment and Diversion Initiatives!"

* Also, be sure to thank Speaker Pro Temp Turner for standing firm during the Appropriations Conference Committee hearing and telling the members that new prison construction is unnecessary and wasteful!

3 comments:

The diversion into new programs instead of prison is great, but there are not enough counselors and other professionals to staff these programs. Nobody addresses that little tidbit, but it is reality, just the same.

I agree with anonymous, there are plenty of professionals who would love to do the job, but not for free.

There are many who graduate and are unable to find jobs. If you pay them they will come. This would be the type of challenge they would love and many studied for this type of work but the State decided to do away with helping those who need the help and went to "lockem up and throw away the key" in the late '90's. Now wonder whose idea that was?

Now is the time for the Legislators do the job they were sent to do and not what Gov. 39% wants done, this is not his State only to do whatever he wants with.

GfB Writer Bios

Subscribe by email

Support Grits via Donation

Donate to Grits via PayPal. Grits is a hobby, but donations help cover newspaper subscriptions, periodic travel, open records fees, etc.. Donate if you can! When I have resources, the blog can do more stuff!

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"

- Rob Patterson, The Austin Post"Scott Henson's 'Grits for Breakfast' is one of the most insightful blogs on criminal justice issues in Texas."

- Texas Public Policy Foundation

"Nobody does it better or works harder getting it right"

David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"

"I appreciate the fact that you obviously try to see both sides of an issue, regardless of which side you end up supporting."

Kim Vickers,Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and EducationGrits for Breakfast "has probably broken more criminal justice stories than any TX reporter, but stays under the radar. Fascinating guy."

Maurice Chammah,The Marshall Project"unrestrained and uneducated"

John Bradley,Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau

"our favorite blog"

- Texas District and County Attorneys Association Twitter feed"Scott Henson ... writes his terrific blog Grits for Breakfast from an outhouse in Texas."